The present invention relates to computer networks, and more particularly to the exchanging of data between different machines in a network.
Computer networks contain several machines which often need to exchange data with each other. One conventional way to perform this exchange of data is to use a clipboard. A conventional clipboard is machine-specific memory to which one or more processes running on the machine may write data An example of a conventional protocol which uses a clipboard is the Network Dynamic Data Exchange (Network DDE) protocol. FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional network which uses the Network DDE protocol. The network 100 includes a plurality of machines 102-108. Each machine runs processes, or programs, such as Processes A-D 110-116. Each machine also has its corresponding clipboard 118-124. These clipboards 118-124 are global in nature, i.e., all processes running on the specific machine write data to the same clipboard which resides on the specific machine. In the Network DDE protocol, the machines in the network 100 may access each other""s clipboards. For example, machine 102 (Machine 1) has its own clipboard 118. The processes A-D 110 running on machine 102 each write data to the global clipboard 118. As data is written onto the clipboard 118, older data already residing on the clipboard is overwritten. Thus, the clipboard 118 contains the latest data written to it. For example, process A on machine 102 first write data into the clipboard 118. Later, process B writes data into the clipboard 118. The data from process A is overwritten by the data from process B. The data concerning process A is thus no longer available. However, a user may wish to obtain the latest data concerning process A. With the conventional clipboards, this is not possible. The conventional clipboards also present a problem if any of the machines fail or is otherwise unavailable. When a machine fails, the data on its clipboard is lost.
Accordingly, what is needed is a method for a process-specific exchange of data between machines in a computer network. The method should be able to avoid the problem of losing data concerning processes on a particular machine if that machine fails. The present invention addresses such a need.
The present invention provides a method for process-specific exchange of data between machines in a computer network. Each machine runs a plurality of processes. The method includes providing a plurality of clipboards for a first machine in the computer network, where each clipboard of the plurality of clipboards corresponds to one of the processes running on the first machine; and storing data concerning a process of the plurality of processes onto its corresponding clipboard. Because the method of the present invention is process-based, machines may obtain data concerning certain processes on certain machines without the problem of the latest data on a process being overwritten by another process. Since the clipboards of the present invention may reside on a third party, if one or more of the machines in the network fail or are otherwise unavailable, the data on their clipboards are not lost.